


Sand, sea, sky

by phisen



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Dreaming, M/M, Yuuri's 25th birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 09:29:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12861672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phisen/pseuds/phisen
Summary: A few hours into the morning of his twenty-fifth birthday, Yuuri dreams of sand, sea and sky.





	Sand, sea, sky

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday, Yuuri <3

A few hours into the morning of his twenty-fifth birthday, Yuuri dreams of sea, sand and sky.

Throughout his life, he's been accompanied by this very dream. One dream that, as soon as he recognises its themes although he's in deep sleep, calms him. It's something about the feel of it that resounds within him, takes him over. That dream is like an old friend that has evolved with him, adding bits and pieces as he has gotten older, to finally become what he sees on the inside of his eyelids that very night.

The dream always, always, starts the same. The first time he dreamt it, as well as now, he walks on a beach. Nothing ever changes. It's the same beach with the same sand, with the same sky touching the same sea. Creating a two-tone cerulean horizon in the distance. Except for sand, sea and sky, there's nothing else, not at first. But Yuuri knows that if he walks twenty-three steps, for he has counted in the dream throughout the years, he'll meet a bird.

He was around ten when it happened the first time. When he dreamt that dream, when he saw that bird. After those twenty-three steps, he saw it standing on the shore where the sea broke in and kissed the sand and left a dark and saturated divide. The bird seemed unfazed by the water, by its feet sinking down into the sand.

That very first time, he was surprised to see it standing there and not take off. It just looked at him, being maybe five or ten strides away. It looked and looked, without even moving. Without even blinking. That was when Yuuri usually woke up, and that interaction kept on happening for the longest of time, for uncountable nights. Them, looking at each other. But nothing else.

Later, it might have been a year or so after that first interaction with the bird in the dream, a change happened. Bits and pieces adding, creating a longer moment. A more detailed moment. Later, when he was able to get even closer, he could see that although the bird resembled a seagull with its white feathers and gray streaks on the tips of its wings, it had blue eyes. Strange that, for he had never seen eyes that pale in a seagull, they were usually in all different hues in between brown to gold. But never blue.

Later yet, when he as a twelve year old had seen an apparition of silver and blue on a TV-screen, his heart full of emotions high and low due to the fact, he decided for himself that he wanted to skate. He wanted to be just as good, just as ethereal. He wanted them to meet. And again, the dream evolved, with the bird taking flight, but never leaving. Just hovering close to him, even though he continued to walk on, along that beach with the same sand, the same sky, the same sea.

The dream stayed that way for many years, him meeting that bird, feeling its presence and enjoying its company. Feeling calmed by their connection on that beach. Then, he left for the US. Then, the dream evolved again, adding new bits and pieces to what he already saw as familiar and complete.

He remembered when it happened. It was after the very first week in Detroit when he was sleeping alone in an unknown bed, his heart vibrating and missing home, when the bird with the pale eyes appeared and made him feel at ease. Watching him, staying close although he continued towards something he wasn't explicitly searching for. But then, it disappeared, took off up into the sky until it could no longer be seen. Vanishing, almost blending in with that intense blue.

That was when he first saw the dog.

The dog came careering through the wet and dry, sea and sand tossed up into the air by forceful strides and claws. And then, it stopped. Yuuri found it strange that they would just be watching each other too, but that's what they did, keeping a comfortable distance to each other. Sometimes just standing. Sometimes, just sitting. Sometimes, walking side by side but never getting any closer, but always, respecting each other's private space. And continued to do so, until it became official that he, a dime of a dozen figure skater from Japan, had decided to aim for the Grand Prix, at age twenty-four.

Then, the dog took the initiative.

When it finally got close, when it finally did something different from what it had done for years and years, namely always stopping short, he felt his heart swell. When it came running at a breakneck speed, pushing him down in the sand no matter if he was standing, sitting or walking, he laughed. When it showed him the unconditional, heart-bursting love that is a dog's perogative, he hugged it back.

Digging his fingers into that fur for the first time, made him think of what breed it could possibly be. A slender build, made for speed and graceful movements combined with a long and thick coat ranging from white to gray, and again, eyes so blue. He could only marvel at its uniqueness, its unhindered joy to finally meet him. For he had always wanted to meet it too.

And then, he failed. He failed to appreciate all of that he should have reveled in with the loss in the Grand Prix Final.

For months, the gull and the dog never got the chance to meet him. Never got the chance to break through the walls of shame and guilt that continued to plague him, awake or asleep. He missed them, the gull and the dog. But he also missed the grains of sand. The salt of the sea. The never ending blue sky. He thought it was lost to him, that dream. Until one night in April, after an eventful day when his hometown of Hasetsu had been covered in snow.

That was when he met the horse.

The horse was different. Instead of watching, instead of stopping short, it came close. Exhaling warm huffs of air onto his neck and cheek, resting its muzzle on his shoulder within seconds of making eye contact. Sometimes, it was trotting in small circles around him with its neck gracefully arched and its tail high up in the air. It was as if it danced. Danced around him. Danced, only for him. That white horse with its flowing white mane and eyes so blue.

The night after promises were made, then almost broken, then made again, with Victor close to him and sharing the same bed, the gull, the dog and the horse appeared again. The gull, watching, taking flight and staying close until it flew off. The dog, running towards him, stopping for the briefest of moments, then continuing only to knock him over. The horse, begging the dog to leave with a flick of its head, a hoof pawing the ground before it rekindled with him, breathing its life onto him. Dancing only for him in circles tighter than before.

That was then. This very night, a few hours into the morning of his twenty-fifth birthday, Yuuri understands. The horse not only wants to dance _for_ him. It wants to dance _with_ him.

He doesn't know how he got on its back, but when he finds himself on top of it with his thighs slowly enveloping the horse's sides and his hands making fists into its mane, it takes off. And together, they dance. A dance he hopes will never end, for at that moment, in that dream where sea, sand and sky acted as a backdrop, he feels as one.

"Yuuri," he hears the horse say, without words inside his head, "this is what it's supposed to be like!"

"What's that?" he answers with a laugh, not thinking about the unreasonable in his dream, him speaking to a horse.

"I said, this is what it's supposed to be like!"

"Oh?"

"Yes. You and me," the horse says, "finally."

"Finally?"

"Yes! First, I showed you the way. Then, I showed you my love. Now, we can finally be one. Just like this, don't you see? Dancing together, meeting the sea and the sky. This is what's life and love should be like!"

Still feeling the coarseness of the sand, the softness of the sea, the vastness of the sky, he wakes up. He wakes up softly, calmly, like he's being led by the hand into a state of consciousness. And when he opens his eyes, a few hours into his twenty-fifth birthday, the first thing he sees are blue eyes slightly covered by silver hair.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Victor says. "Happy birthday."


End file.
